An army of yesterday's ghosts
by wyteeth
Summary: Sakumo runs a hand through his shaggy hair, "At least we've got each other." Orochimaru honestly doesn't know if the statement brings him any comfort. In which Orochimaru and Sakumo become missing-nin together. AU. Used to be 'On the run'.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Heavily inspired by black. 's _A Snake In The Grass, A Wolf At The Door_. So please go and read that instead of this monstrosity haha (no seriously, go shower black. with reviews and follows and favorites).**

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Sometimes he wonders just what cruel deity or awful twist of fate got him to where he is right now, at this moment. Orochimaru taps the long fingernail of his index finger against the kunai he's sharpening, seemingly ignoring the way Sakumo undresses to the side of him.

"I'd say don't peek but I don't take you as someone who would in the first place." The silver haired man says, ending it with a muffled chuckle.

"And you are right, for once, Hatake." Orochimaru lies easily. It's easy enough to see the firm lines of the other shinobi's body from this angle, never mind that he could see the other man fully through the reflection on his kunai.

When he hears (and sees) the man finish changing, Sakumo plops down next to Orochimaru, in front of the small campfire they built and sticks his hands outwards to take in the warmth. Nights in Earth Country were always chilly at best; Orochimaru huddled near the fire the moment it was made.

"Remember to burn your old uniform the next morning. And make sure to do it before the sun fully rises." The Sannin reminds the other, feeling both the heat from the flame in front of him and the heat from the man beside him.

Sakumo grins, the kind that lets one of his sharp canine teeth poke through, "Yes, of course, _dear_."

Orochimaru almost grimaces at the fact that the word (dear, dear, _dear_ ) sounds more genuine than the original sarcasm it used to have. He chooses to uphold his blank face instead.

"Jiraiya had always said you were a nagger. Guess he wouldn't lie about that kind of stuff, huh?"

"...What else had that bumbling fool said about me?" Orochimaru hesitates and Sakumo catches it. His old team was a constant sore spot for the Sannin, though it feels more like a stinging, though (slowly) healing wound rather than the angry, open gash it had once been.

"Does the Great and Impenetrable Orochimaru actually care about what other people say about him? I thought I'd never live to see the day." Sakumo teases but he continues on.

"Just so you know, I've only ever spoken with the guy whenever he was drunk or about to be," Orochimaru snorts because it was so like his teammate to do that, "Obviously he'd go on and on about Tsunade and why he was way better than Dan, but after all that nonsense he'd eventually start talking about you too. It's weird."

"What is?" Orochimaru asks because anything about everything about their lives was just plain ol' weird at this point. And that was putting it lightly.

"Dunno. I guess, just how everything seems to end with you." Sakumo replies quietly.

A light breeze flows past and the tips of the flame lick at their feet, their ninja sandals well worn and caked with dirt, leaves, and blood. Sakumo's face is illuminated by the fire and even tinged with orange the other man is _beautiful_ and Orochimaru hopes that one day, when the timing is just right, that he could say it to him.

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 **[2 years prior]**

The end of the Second War is a catalyst for many things: tensions between Iwa and Konoha, talk of a new Hokage, and most importantly to Orochimaru, a new vice.

Orochimaru is barely 20 and already a veteran of a war he fought in the front lines of. He doesn't truly see himself as human anymore, the reflection looking at him but a snake stained with blood so deep that even after molting, the new layer of flesh is still a terrifying, bright red. 

"Oi, Snake-face, you done getting all dolled up in there?" He hears Tsunade yell and it's fond and horrible all at the same time. 

He stays in the bathroom a minute longer than he intended, if only to spite her, "All yours, Princess." 

"I better not catch any of your dead skin on the sink again!" She yells out. 

"It was that one time when we were hatchlings!" He hisses back out. 

And if he faintly hears another voice, louder and deeper than the two could ever make, laughing and booming all at the same time, Orochimaru pretends to not imagine it. The only person who could ever make the noise long gone and no where to be found. 

(But he does hear it and he damn well knows Tsunade hears it too.)

The two, used to be three, all but lived under the same roof; the Senju clan compound had become a second home for the orphan, and even as an adult and fully grown ninja, Orochimaru couldn't imagine living alone. The last time he tried was back at his family's own land years ago and that had ended in disaster. The unkept grounds and abandoned home speaks volumes on that.

Orochimaru doesn't say goodbye as he disappears in a flurry of purple smoke- leaves were too tacky for his tastes- and appears in his lab. It's dark and although lined with cold, sterile medical equipment, warm enough for a cold blooded creature such as himself.

He stares his vice down, lying on a metal slab, completely still other than the small heaves of breath stating that it was alive.

"Kabuto." The Sannin calls out and there is a presence, small and lithe but there.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama." The young boy defers.

"How is Kimimaro?" Long fingers of a pale hand reach out to touch the cheek of even paler skin.

There's the jingle of a clipboard and, "Kaguya-san should be stabalized by now and fit for further testing."

"Thank you, Kabuto." Orochimaru acknowledges and its enough for Kabuto to make a small smile, hidden behind his master.

The hand on the cheek lets out a small surge of chakra, glowing green and radiating warmth; it's a technique he picked up from Tsunade who used it to gently wake up her patients. For all of her brute strength she was also able to show surprising tenderness.

Orochimaru could only ever make a pale imitation of it but its close enough, judging by how the white haired child starts to flutter his eyes and awaken.

"Kimimaro, it's time to open your eyes." He says gently, and ironically he wonders what Jiraiya would say if he saw Orochimaru right now.

The oaf would most likely call him a hypocrite; having threatened the three Ame orphans before, only to be nursing an orphan himself, ha!

"Mmn," The boy mumbles out, feeling the warmth on his cheek, "Where am I?"

"You are under my care, Kimimaro. For now, don't worry about the why's and instead see if you can stand." Orochimaru pulls back the sheets and puts an arm around the boy to help him up. He's glad to see that Kimimaro is compliant and tries to stand with his support.

Later that day Kimimaro is strong enough to start sparring. Orochimaru puts him up against Kabuto because he trusts the older boy to be able to heal the other after.

When Orochimaru is back at the bustle of the village he walks into the Hokage's office. His face immediately smooths out to a clear canvas betraying nothing.

"Minato." He says, face empty and eyes blank.

"Orochimaru-san." The blond greets back.

It's awkward for the both of them and Hiruzen mediates it with a cough, "I'm sure you both know why you're here."

"It's an honor to be considered for the position, Hokage-sama." Minato says amiably, so perfect as he is with everything else.

It makes Orochimaru want to yank his hair out and scream. But he doesn't.

"It ultimately comes down to the council," And the Sannin knows enough about them to know he lost before it even started, "But the decision will be made soon."

Perhaps it was the way Minato continued to smile, no pity or smugness in his expression as he looks between Orochimaru and his old teacher, or the way that Hiruzen blows out a cloud of smoke from his pipe, familiar in the black soot that falls from it. But Orochimaru finds himself put out by everything altogether and decides he's had enough.

"If that's all you have to say, sensei, then I might as well offer Minato here a hand to help him move his things into your office. After all, I'm not blind nor am I a _fool_." It comes out acidic and full of malice and Orochimaru can't bring himself to feel bad about the hurt looks from the other two.

He turns to leave, his yukata billowing out behind him and ignores the looks that dig into his backside. Ignores the way Hiruzen calls out to him, something in his voice so close to familial love it _hurts,_ but Orochimaru is lucky enough to know he'll survive even _when_ it hurts.

He's been through a war, damn it. Why does he feel worse now that it's over?

(Probably because Jiraiya is gone, the villagers still don't trust him despite giving his humanity for them, and everything just _hurts_.)

He doesn't go back to the Senju compound that night, instead heading back to his lab to test and experiment and feel the comforting presence of unfeeling science. It turns out to be the wrong choice, one amidst several others, because when he does return, Tsunade is long gone.

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Sakumo believes in the good of people. He believes in it even when he's seen the horrors of war and he still believes in it even when he sees the horrors of everyday shinobi life.

It becomes harder to believe in them after becoming a father.

"Cub, why don't you take a break and I'll make lunch for you." His son lifts his head from doing katas and Sakumo feels so, so proud.

"Okay, dad."

Lunch is simple- has been ever since his wife's death- and it goes by in silence. Kakashi goes back to doing katas but the weather is good and he wants to spend time with his son while he still can so he says, "Wanna go check the mission desk with me, Cub?"

Kakashi turns his head and his young face lights up, "Yeah!"

They walk together, side by side because his Cub is too old to ride on his dad's shoulders anymore and Sakumo puts on a whole show of being disappointed at that.

"C'mon dad, you're embarrassing me! Can't we just walk there like normal people?" Kakashi whines.

"Am I not normal to you, Cub?" Sakumo cries out making an even bigger scene as he slumps onto his knees.

At that moment, a figure bumps into Sakumo as it turns the corner, a flurry of sleek black hair being pushed to the side, "...Mutts shouldn't be laying out on the street."

"Hey! That's Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang, not just some mutt!" Kakashi retorts back, indignant at the lady who dared to call his father that name.

"Looks like there's two mutts here instead of one." The lady brushes off her robes and steps to the side.

Sakumo can handle being teased but not when his son is involved so he grabs the other's arm, too quick to get away from and says, "Orochimaru, that's enough."

Orochimaru, who sniffs and tugs away, relents, "Fine. I'm in a rush anyways."

The Sannin stalks away after that and disappears at the next corner. Kakashi immediately rounds on him.

"That lady was so rude! Who does she think she is!?" Kakashi doesn't care if she was pretty, or if her hair was shiny, _or if she had cool looking eyes,_ she had no right to act like that towards his dad.

"Lady?" Sakumo chokes back a laugh, the tension from earlier melting away as he looks at his son, "Cub, that was Orochimaru of the Sannin. _He's_ actually quite strong, too."

"...So she wasn't a lady?!"

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 **A/N: Continue?**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I've changed the title from** _ **On the run**_ **to** _ **An army of yesterday's ghosts**_ **. Was unhappy with the original title so I took that line from L. Shrieber's** _ **Poetry for the Signs: The "It Is Okay" Ed.**_ **to suit the tone of this story more.**

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[2 years prior]

Orochimaru was dying. Like his fear of abandonment, it is a well kept secret; held between a single person, himself. The cause being some inscrutable illness that hid itself behind the genes of his DNA and like a vine creeping itself up on a wooden post, the illness had begun to manifest in a way that led to shortness in breath in light cases and then fits of coughing stained with blood at its worse.

You could not fault him for not trying to help himself; it seemed all he ever did now was spend time in his lab searching, futilely, for an answer. But without Tsunade's help his research towards finding a cure was backtracked by several weeks, maybe even years. Orochimaru did not have that time.

So when Danzo approaches him with an offer, which in the end is nothing more than 'obey or die', Orochimaru finds himself nodding and agreeing along. He was tired, but he was not giving up. Just… giving in.

To make himself feel better he reasons that the subjects' lives-

(Children who _had families, children who could have mattered to this world_ )

\- would not die in vain. Each one a step towards finding some kind of breakthrough, and perhaps even cure the illness. It was what they were here for, after all. Nevermind the short glimpse of Sharingan eyes held in the hands of a little ROOT agent's fist he had seen when speaking with Danzo, nevermind the screams that were drowned out by the seals taught to him once-

(They were young and Jiraiya wanted to get to know his teammate better, even if it kills him. The young boy teaches the other a silencing seal and with a few brush strokes, the two had become _tied_ together for life)

\- by his wayward teammate. He had gone through war, he reminds himself. But it is now where he wonders which side he was truly fighting for.

If only he had more time; more time to research for a cure, more time to makes things right with his village, with his teammates again. But it seems like after the war everyone, including him, was simply living on borrowed time. If there was some kind of way to extend his life further, he'd make a change. Orochimaru believes this.

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"Man, the nerve of that lady- uh, Orochimaru!" Kakashi catches himself quickly, turning away to hide his blush from his father, "Who does he think he is?"

"He probably thinks he's Orochimaru of the Sannin. Remember what I told you about them?" Sakumo hides a knowing smile, definitely seeing the blush on his son's cheeks.

"Seriously? How can that guy be a Sannin, he looks like a twig!"

" _Cub_ , you need to look underneath the underneath. The Sannin were the ones who took down Hanzo the Salamander of Ame, and without them, who knows what would've happened to Konoha." Sakumo runs a gloved hand through his son's hair, keeping quiet about the fact that a war could have been lost had the Sannin not done what they did.

For all the illustrious praise given to the three he worried for their safety and viewed them as valued comrades, friends even, despite the fact all three of them had some kind of vice or the other. It was the least he could do for their service and the years of working together as fellow ninja.

So when ANBU had come in later that night and issued him an order to track down Tsunade for leaving the village (not for deserting, not until proven), he wasted no time to don on his gear and zip through to the gates of the village.

It takes a full week before he and two other jounin stop her at the outskirts of Ame's borders, the sky cloudy and grey with the buildup of its rain.

"Senju Tsunade, we have orders to bring you back to the village. Stop and desist, now!" Sakumo barks out, stashing his kunai away to show goodwill.

"Hatake… Of course Sensei would send out his best dogs after me," The blonde woman lets out a tired sigh, her countenance no better than the last time Sakumo has seen her, which is not much.

"I'll just save us all the trouble right now by saying I'm not going back. There's nothing but bad memories in Konoha and if Sensei wants a better explanation, just tell him that I've gone to- I've gone to find purpose again and it damn well isn't back there in a hospital where I can't save no one."

"Tsunade-" Sakumo starts but is interrupted quickly by said woman.

"I don't want to hear it, Hatake. If Jiraiya can do it, so can I. Haven't I given so much already for Konoha?" And after clenching her fists, "I'll come back someday, I promise."

"So that's it then?" Sakumo shook his head in disbelief.

"If you still want a fight, then I welcome you to try. It'll be just like when you were in the Academy and you were my kouhai." Tsunade raised a fist in challenge but her face was as stony as ever.

"It's been a long time since the Academy, Tsunade. Things happen and things change."

"Then bring it!" Tsunade roars and hammers down her fist into the soil with no mercy, instantly cracking the earth into waves.

The silver haired man leaps and charges forward with his famed White Light Sabre, the blade crackling with charged electricity. The other two jounin accompanying him start flanking the blonde woman's sides leaving her with no escape.

"Tsunade!" Sakumo yells, his sabre cutting into her shoulder while her fist lands on his side painfully. A lesser man would have been blown off by the sheer impact but the Hatake had to bring her back, if not for his village then for the woman's own well being.

But the rush of success did not last long, after pumping enough chakra into his sabre to create a current strong enough to paralyze, the body of Tsunade started to wobble and melt before falling apart altogether and dispersing into hundreds of small, porcelain slugs.

The last thing he hears from the Tsunade clone makes it all the more painful to return to the Hokage empty handed, "I'm sorry."

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 **A/N: I've read on the wiki that Orochimaru wanted immortality to 'learn all the world's secrets' but in my opinion I felt that he would have more likely been motivated by something else. 'Learn all the world's secrets' just seems like poor writing for such a complex character like our dear Orochi but then again Kishimoto had to deal with numerous different characters with each one having a backstory of their own so, preventing himself from rehashing the same story then (cough but the whole reborn gods of Naruto and Sasuke though cough)?**

 **Anyways, this is how I plan to introduce the concept of immortality to Orochi because then it would make way more sense for him to be using other people's bodies who are healthy and not his own if he had a disease.**

 **Thanks for reading, I'll be continuing this story!**

 **Special thank to:** _ **, ArturoLJ50, VampireDoll666, and PureInsanity39!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**An army of yesterday's ghosts**_

 **A/N: Orochimaru can't catch no break nuh-uh.**

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[19 months prior]

A shadowed silhouette blocks out the lithe figure of a person standing at the doorway. The light that still filters in is almost blinding but the old man sitting inside the room will always know who the person standing there is.

"Orochimaru." Hiruzen's gruff voice calls out, beckoning him forward from the door.

The Sannin takes a step forward, his hair swishing behind him in that relaxed and smooth way often described by others about the man. The light leaves him and reveals the dark hair and clothing, contrasted by the man's pale skin.

"Sensei." He greets back, face fully in view and impassive to most but the older man picks out the slight downturn of his eyebrows, the tightness in his lips. Tension runs along Orochimaru's features clearly for the Hokage to see.

"It's been years since you came to see me on your own accord, Orochimaru. What does the occasion call?" Hiruzen says, both a question and accusation at once. The Sannin thinks his teacher is all too good at that, making him feel guilt yet never truly blaming him for anything.

"I'd like to expand my research. Further than Konoha, at least." The dark haired Sannin allows; he's learned the hard way to explain what he wants clearly but to never give any worthwhile details. Orochimaru has grown up knowing the value of having information, and thus leverage, after all.

"How I've missed your bluntness, honestly, it's a breath of fresh air from the oblique proposals of the Council," A low chuckle comes from the man. Orochimaru does not deign a reply, long used to Hiruzen's dry humor.

"I know you're waiting for me to ask, Orochimaru, for what do you need outside assistance for and where were you thinking of heading?"

"Kusagakure has an array of wild flora that are mostly undocumented. Being that our villages are allied, I assumed it would not be much work to arrange some kind of allowance for me to set up a lab there?"

"And what was it again that you are researching for, Orochimaru?"

"Hanzo's salamander spat out a corrosive poison unlike any that me nor my snakes have seen. I think it would be beneficial for Konoha to have an antidote, should we encounter another salamander summoner or a recreation of their poison again."

Orochimaru did not sound desperate. He was indeed a man short on time but he was never the type to show weakness or garner pity; instead his eyes were focused like they usually get when he finds a new lead to his research or when he learns a new jutsu.

Snakes were dangerous like that; even when close to death, they rattle their threats and ready their fangs. However, Hiruzen was accustomed to Orochimaru's own idiosyncrasies―in fact, he found his student's never-ending quest for knowledge endearing.

It was because of that that Hiruzen lets out a sigh, having already known that his student's presence was already enough for him to acquiesce nearly anything. The aging man had spent almost as much time with his team than with his own family leaving him with much fond feelings―as conflicting as they were―towards the Sannin.

Practically raising the orphaned Orochimaru, Hiruzen felt paternal affection for him. Despite all the mistakes and tragedy throughout the years, Hiruzen never so much as prosecuted Orochimaru, only ever going as far as pushing more missions onto him.

(Because at the root of it all, Konoha was a ninja village who had more use for their most powerful―the Sannin―outside her walls and fighting for strength and liberty than having them in a lab or a hospital.)

And because Hiruzen is willfully blind to his student's faults, he allows Orochimaru access to another base in Kusa.

The so-called God of Shinobi had his own weaknesses too, even after all these years.

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"We will build a base in Kusa. Away from Konoha and Danzo's influence." Orochimaru tells Kabuto the following night when all preparations have been made and called in from Hiruzen's side.

The gray haired boy looks up at his master, wonderfully amazed at everything the Sannin does, but despite that there is a faint feeling of doubt, "Danzo will try to send his own after us, maybe even station them in Kusa to oversee our actions, Orochimaru-sama."

"They will not have any reason to if we can prove our loyalty." Orochimaru is currently hunched over Kimimaro, running a pale hand through equally pale hair as Kabuto checks on the sleeping boy's vitals.

Kabuto revels in nights like these where he and his master get to talk in hushed voices; there is a level of importance attached to the conversations with Orochimaru that he cannot find or acquire elsewhere.

Amid the lab's dreary atmosphere, there was a sense of life whenever the older man came and went. And even if Kabuto learns to keep secrets from his village, to take children in the night, he knows he will follow Orochimaru wherever he goes.

"How?" Came the obvious reply.

"Danzo wants to implement the Sharingan for his own use, and what better way than successfully implanting them into his own body?" Orochimaru forms a mysterious smile, and although still stroking Kimimaro's hair and looking down at the boy, his serpentine eyes are far away and _calculating._

"Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asks warily.

"Get the operating table ready and I will meet you in the next hour or so," The Sannin says and after seeing the apprehension in the boy's face, "I hardly doubt Danzo will decline my offer."

Orochimaru turns to walk away, already knowing that Kabuto will continue looking at his retreating back, and in a quiet whisper will say, "Of course, Orochimaru-sama."

And by the end of that night, Orochimaru would have offered the choice to the old war hawk that will forever damn him. But it was his decision to make, for being a shinobi means to live in shame and to reach lowest pits of hell to scrap together a meaningful life.

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"Heard that damn snake 's movin' out to Kusa." A heavily muscled chuunin drunkily says to another.

"Good riddance! 'Bout time he got the memo and went skedaddle like the rest of the Three!" The drinking partner hollers back.

Sakumo wasn't one to drink, much less get a drink in the seediest bar located in Konoha, but missions have been increasing in frequency and intensity and the Hatake figured he'd need a break. Well timed rest means a better well being, his Yamanaka therapist had once told him.

" _A well timed rest means a better well being."_ The gray haired man repeats under his breath, trying to drown out the noise beside him.

"Wassat mean, O' Great White Fang?" One of the drunkards sloppily leans over, having heard Sakumo's mumbling.

"It's nothing." He replies, clipped and not wanting to get involved.

"Hah?! Get a load of this guy, Takiru! Thinks he's too good to explain himself, shit!" The drunkard yells, waving the bottle of alcohol in his hands with abandon.

Some of the liquid splashes onto him, mixing in with the patches of blood on his uniform. Sakumo growls, lips drawn tight, "Watch it."

"Yeah, or what? Hehe, you'll back me up, right, Takiru?" The drunkard sneers and his companion nods his head shamelessly.

Not another second goes by before the two charge at Sakumo, their inebriation apparent in their sluggish movements and lack of awareness. Normally the jounin would shake his head, walk away and be the bigger man, but he lost a teammate―and more than that, a precious friend―during the mission earlier leaving no amount of mercy within him at the moment.

This time he appears behind the two drunks, easily grabbing both their heads in his hands and slams them together to effectively knock them out. The two slouch down across each other on the floor, the whole bar quieting down to whispers as the White Fang wiped some of the spilled alcohol from earlier off his face.

"You call yourselves ninja of Konoha? Picking fights and talking behind fellow comrades' backs like that? Be rest assured the Hokage will be informed, especially about the things you've said about his own students." And with a final glare at the two, he makes a shunshin back to his home.

He'll visit the hospital tomorrow, after making a stop at the Tower to deliver his mission report as well as make good on his promise. Maybe he'll even pass by his therapist for a quick session.

A single thought courses through his mind that night, following him into his dreams and echoing into his ears even the next morning.

 _Well timed rest means a better well being._

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 **A/N: Again, I've read on the wiki that Orochimaru has a base in Kusa and so I decided this was how he got it, yadda yadda. At this point I'm just picking and choosing what I like from the wiki and what I remember to build this AU.**

 **Some personal stuff: I feel like I've hit a rut, or maybe I've already peaked and the best writing I've ever done is _done_ and everything else I post will only pale in comparison. Take this story for example, I like to write based on my moods and too often I only think about my previous piece _Mess is Mine to Make_ _―_ which is another angsty Oro―instead of this one so I feel at a loss about how to tie my emotions to the words...I guess it's just hard to find inspiration (and usually that means writing another half-assed story to force myself to find some, oh well).**

 **Anyways, I thank all of you for the support anyways and I'm so glad you're still reading.**


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